


Declarative Memory

by Zabbers



Category: Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-12
Updated: 2014-11-12
Packaged: 2018-02-25 03:24:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2606708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zabbers/pseuds/Zabbers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sheppard loses his memory, Vala is distressed, and Mitchell--who is <em>not</em> Captain Holland--has gotta help out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Declarative Memory

"Sheppard!"

The man before them stiffened, turning around to peer at whoever was chasing him. His eyes widened incredulously. "Holland?"

Cameron Mitchell glanced at his teammate. "What'd he just call me?"

She shrugged. "What makes you think that I would know?"

Mitchell fidgeted uncomfortably. "You're the one who's been...getting to know him better since he joined Stargate Command."

"We don't talk about personal things." Vala shifted her center of gravity as she thought about this. She grinned. "Actually, we don't talk much at all."

"You? Not talk?"

"We have much better, much more fun things to do."

"I don't want to know."

"You asked."

"I did not!"

"Did too."

Mitchell rolled his eyes. "Come on." They'd taken partial shelter behind a largish, moss-covered tree, and now as Sheppard continued to run through the forest, so did they. He had to give it to Sheppard; the man was good. But so was he--so were they, and they had the advantage of not having just been zapped by some Ancient doodad. It was only a matter of time before he and Vala caught up to Sheppard, brought him back to the SGC, and Carter and Jackson could get him back to normal.

But they still had to be careful.

"Sheppard!" he hollered. "Just wait up a minute!"

There was nothing but the crash of a body through undergrowth in response. Mitchell reached for his Zat and checked it, just in case.

"Daniel said the device wouldn't change his personality, only affect his memories and perceptions."

"Doesn't mean he won't be dangerous. He's armed, isn't he?"

Vala seemed to consider this for a moment before pulling her own weapon out of her vest. The serpentine energy gun made a charging sound as she powered it up, all the while remaining in step. 

"Besides," Mitchell added, "We don't know whether this Holland guy is his friend or his enemy. We'll stun him from a distance and carry him back to the Stargate."

"I suppose you're volunteering to carry him."

~

In the end--the far, far away end--that's what Mitchell did, slinging the unconscious Colonel over his shoulder like a sack of flour. Weighed about as much too. Not for the first time, he really wished Teal'c weren't away dealing with Jaffa...stuff. If Teal'c had been there, Sheppard might not have gotten away through the 'gate in the first place. It was amazing how much damage one disoriented officer could do to a highly secure underground facility. Then again, Mitchell shouldn't be surprised. He'd read the reports: One man against a dozen, another sixty on the way, and he'd beat those odds in the deserted city and saved the day. In the two and a half years since the Atlantis Expedition had gone to the Pegasus Galaxy, he and his team had lived through about as many little adventures as SG-1 had, and Mitchell could understand Sheppard's antsyness with Earth life, his dissatisfaction with the SG teams he'd been assigned. 

Still, that was no reason to accidentally set off an alien device and run around like a nutcase. Stir crazy was one thing. Actual, honest-to-goodness crazy, that was going too far.

Mitchell planned to tell Sheppard that, as soon as he woke up.

He and Vala were in the Infirmary because Vala was keeping an eye on Sheppard in case he did wake up, and he was keeping an eye on Vala. She seemed okay, but she was about as good at self-deception as she was at lying to others, and with Jackson busy trying to figure out the artifact, it was up to him to take care of his team. He'd meant to spend the time catching up on mission reports, but he could tell that even though Vala wanted to be here, she was still bored. This might have been because she had put her chin on the mattress and sighed volubly. Often.

So he'd found a pack of cards and was letting her swindle him out of a pack of Twizzlers.

"I can see what you're doing, you know."

Mitchell didn't look up at his cards. "Oh yeah? What am I doing?"

"It's as clear as my complexion."

"I don't cheat at cards."

"I'm not saying you're cheating."

"Then what _am_ I doing, Vala?" he asked, finally glancing at her. She looked smug.

"You're trying to make me feel better."

There was a soft noise from the bed. They turned just in time to see green eyes blink open. "How are you doing, Sunshine?" 

It took a moment for Sheppard to find his focus. He frowned, attention darting between the two of them. He started to say something, mouth working as though it was full of cotton balls. Mitchell knew the feeling. "Did I...pass out?"

He exchanged a look with Vala. "You were hit with a Zat'nit'kel," she said.

"A what? Where am I?"

That look intensified, and Mitchell spoke up again. "Colonel, do you remember what's happened to you?"

Sheppard seemed surprised. "Colonel? You're either kidding, or you're crazy." 

His gaze took in the room, its bunker-like quality. "Where are we?"

_Uh oh_. "You don't remember."

Vala wandered away to sit heavily on the next bed over. Sheppard watched as she started swinging her feet.

"What _is_ the last thing you remember?" Mitchell asked. He was going to have to deal with Vala later.

Sheppard licked his lip. "I went out on a run."

He'd definitely been running, but it hadn't exactly been a nice jog in the park. "You got hit with an Ancient device. Something you were testing for Dr. Jackson, with your gene." 

He was prone to that, apparently, accidentally activating technology and suffering the out-of-proportion consequences, or so McKay said. Half the stuff the guy had been telling Carter since she'd called him had never made it into the mission reports. It wouldn't surprise Mitchell if McKay had made it all up.

"Anyway, it screwed you up, made you run around the base like an ornery goat with its butt on fire, and while the whole base was chasing after you, you gated offworld to an uninhabited planet, and we had to come looking for you, stun you, and haul your ass back here."

"I have no idea what any of that means, but where is here? And did you just say 'off world'?"

"Yes," Vala said suddenly, and with surprising bile. "You know, off world, other planets, aliens, little green men, 'take me to your leader', 'na-nu na-nu'?"

Sheppard and Mitchell both stared at her. She looked away. 

"Holland, who _is_ that?"

That name again. "I'm--Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Mitchell, and this is Vala. Vala Mal Doran. You're in Stargate Command, under Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs."

"Now I know you're fucking with me. Joke's over, Buddy; what the hell's going on?"

~

Sheppard honest to goodness didn't remember anything. And being a closed-lipped son of a bitch, he was making it hard for any of them to find out just what he did remember. Dr. Lam insisted that his brain wave patterns were still highly erratic, and that it was better not to push him. The scientists weren't getting anywhere, and pretty soon the crisis of the week took their attention anyway. Vala didn't seem to want to get anywhere near him. And he still insisted on calling Mitchell by another man's name.

"Captain Holland," Walter said, walking into the mess hall with a folder in hand.

Mitchell groaned. "Not you too."

"Sir? I meant, I think Colonel Sheppard is referring to a Captain Holland." He tapped the folder.

Mitchell reached out for it. "Let me see."

"Captain Mike Holland, USAF. They were stationed together in Afghanistan."

"Great!" Mitchell opened up the folder. "Maybe he can get some sense out of Sheppard."

Walter grimaced. "Um, I don't think that would be possible."

"Why?" He tilted his head over his sandwich to glance at the file.

"Because Captain Holland--"

"--died four years ago." He flipped the cover back over the details. "Well, this helps us peg how much of his memory he's lost. Thanks, Walter."

The Sergeant nodded and moved on to pick up his own lunch. Mitchell polished off his peanut butter and jelly, pondering. When he'd finished, he bused his tray, grabbing a red Jello and a cup of coffee. Then he went to find Vala.

She was tucked away at a corner table; he'd seen her walk in while he was talking to Walter, but she'd avoided eye contact with him, so he knew she knew he was looking for her. He set the Jello on the blue tablecloth and sat down in the chair opposite.

"All right, Vala, what say you tell me what's bothering you?"

She made a grab for the Jello right away. "Nothing's bothering me," she demurred before popping the spoon in her mouth.

"You've been uncharacteristically quiet," Mitchell pointed out. " _And_ , you haven't been to see Colonel Sheppard since the day we brought him back from P2X-793."

Vala sighed into her dessert. "I only-- I find it rather...unnerving, that's all."

"What about it do you find unnerving?"

She pushed the Jello around. "Does every civilization have to invent a memory machine?"

Mitchell exhaled, letting out a puff of air. "It sucks, having your memories screwed around with. Your mind. I know."

"Sometimes I think about what it was like, not to know who I was, yet to have those fleeting memories, images of my time as Qetesh." She shook her head. "I was so lost, and all I still knew how to do was to run." 

"He's still John Sheppard. He's just forgotten a few years and needs to get them back."

Vala let her spoon fall into the Jello cup with a clatter. "He doesn't believe in aliens. He thinks we're all wrinkly, hairless creatures, like the Asgard."

"He just hasn't met the right one yet. Think of this as a chance to make a great first contact." Mitchell downed his coffee and got up. "Let's go talk to him and give him the opportunity to not be a xenophobic amnesiac."

~

"So let me get this straight: You travel to other planets through a big--" Sheppard made a circle motion with his head "--round ring thing, and _she's_ an alien?"

" _I_ am capable of speaking for myself." Vala leaned against the wall farthest away from Sheppard, arms crossed protectively. She and Mitchell had located him in his quarters, reading what looked to be four years' back issues of a couple of comic books.

Sheppard looked chagrined. 

"Sorry." He tilted his head towards Mitchell. "I'm more used to Mike here, so I keep trying to talk to him."

Mitchell almost keened with frustration. "Look, Colonel, I'm really not Captain Holland."

"No, of course not," Sheppard agreed with a pleasant, bland expression. "You're _Lieutenant Colonel_ Holland now."

He tried very hard not to clench his fists. "Vala, help me out here."

Reluctantly, she approached them. She gave Sheppard a tentative smile. "John."

Sheppard smiled back pleasantly enough. Mitchell figured that counted for something. He retreated to the very wall Vala had been occupying.

"So, why's this so important to you?" Sheppard asked.

Vala caught at her pigtails. "Funny you should ask that. I've been asking myself the same question." She hesitated.

Sheppard put down his comic book and picked up another. "You know what? It's fine. Don't--"

"--We're dating," Vala blurted.

"...Dating?"

"We go out for dinner, and coffee, and we watch movies and eat popcorn, and entertain ourselves on base together? It gets so boring otherwise. And you're attractive, and I'm attractive..."

"That's--fine! I get it. I know how it works."

Vala's smile turned sheepish. "I guess you haven't forgotten _that_ much."

Sheppard nodded a few times, finally really looking at Vala. "Yeah. I haven't forgotten that much."

Mitchell left them to get reacquainted.

~

He found Daniel and Sam in the lab containing the device. There was an extremely loud guy with them; Mitchell could hear it even before he saw.

"You obviously have no idea how to go about studying this type of Ancient technology, and should have called me as soon as Sheppard had that reaction to it. I mean, who knows what kind of damage it could have done to his brain since he's been subject to its effects? And you've spent that time going through your library? You might as well ask the Ancients to interfere as find manuals for half the things they made. At least you finally had enough intelligence to admit that you couldn't figure it out and called me. Let's just hope it isn't too late."

It was Dr. McKay.

"The Ancients actually left behind a great deal of information." That was Jackson. "You just have to know how to find it, and have the patience to truly study and understand their writings. A lot of it is disguised as fables and idioms."

"We only called you because we thought Colonel Sheppard might benefit from seeing you." Carter.

"Well, now I'm here, let's figure this out, and then he won't have to hear me tell him what he's been doing for the last two and a half years. Have you analyzed the energy readings on the device?"

"Of course we have!" Both of them, in stereo.

"Let me see."

He listened for another minute while Sam launched into a string of technobabble that appeared sound to him; if nothing else, McKay kept quiet through it before answering with his own, and that, Mitchell had learned from watching them work before, was a good sign.

He chuckled to himself as he went on by, leaving them to their work. Sheppard was in good hands. He was going to be just fine.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to Livejournal, 14 August 2007. Written for pentapus for the John/Vala Thingathon. I enjoy writing Cameron. That was fun. Thanks to wicked_socks and smuffster betaing.


End file.
